Friend – Four years ago today, George Floyd’s life was brutally snuffed out by a white Minneapolis police officer with a long, documented record of excessive force and misconduct. 

Three other cops on the scene stood by casually watching and keeping the gathering crowd at bay while Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

Floyd repeatedly cried out “I can’t breathe” until his last breath. A teenage bystander recorded it for all the world to see.

It was a moment that shocked our nation’s conscience. In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, when life already felt so fragile, the brutality of white supremacy and American policing shattered what little sense of safety we had left.

In the days that followed, Americans rose up by the millions. We took to the streets in solidarity with the Floyd family – demanding serious, concrete, and irrevocable reforms to our criminal IN-justice system.

There was a moment, just over a week after losing her father in this brutal, public, racist assault, Floyd’s six year old daughter Gianna looked over the crowds gathered and declared: “Daddy changed the world!”

Gianna’s declaration of love moved us all. But as a mother and an activist, those words were also a knife through my heart.

Today, Gianna is 10 years old and producing a documentary about her father’s life. Floyd’s entire family has stepped into the role of activists, pushing against the system to fight for those reforms we all demanded four years ago – striving to make Gianna’s words come true.

But the Floyd family deserved a long life with their son, their brother, their father, George. They did not ask to become activists, and they should not carry the burden alone.

It’s up to ALL of us to see that George Floyd’s meaningless murder is given purpose so that other lives can be saved, and justice be done.

Today I ask that you join me in making a contribution to the Floyd Family Center for Social Equity to support their continued advocacy.

For the last four years, our politicians have used the Floyd family for photo ops and talking points. They have repeatedly stalled, watered down, and reversed the police reforms we demanded.

That ends when I become president. When elected, I will push Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. But that is just the beginning.

I will end qualified immunity – a practice first established to protect members of the KKK — that currently acts as a shield for police brutality and prosecutorial misconduct.

I will bring ALL police misconduct allegations under federal authority so cops with repeated allegations of abuse and violence can’t shop for a new city to brutalize when they’ve worn out their welcome in another.

We will do all of this and more, and we WILL have justice for George Floyd.

You can read more about my plans to transform prisons and policing in America on my platform here.

After four years, it’s time we live up to Gianna’s words and change the world. Thank you for being in this fight with me.

In solidarity and gratitude,

Jill